Who can I contact to help my soldier reclassify from 68W to 31K (K9 Handler)?

2020-11-28T13:34:53-05:00

He is good soldier, but like a lot of others has been burned out by monthly rotations after being stationed at NTC for almost 3 years. He is pretty much dead set on this or getting out and trying to become a police officer.

Our squadron retention NCO is away for school and I went and spoke to retention at regimental with his words being “Don’t count on it.”

Are there any senior leaders out there that know if this is feasible or have a POC I could reach out to in order to try to help this soldier out a bitt?

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 28 at 2020 1:52 PM

2020-11-28T13:52:09-05:00

Don't even bother with 31K. There are never any class seats for it. Since they made it a standalone MOS in 2012/2013 I've seen less than two dozen class seats and they're gone instantly. It's pure luck to get one, and you cant plan a future on luck.

Don't believe anyone who tells you "they know a guy" and there's a different way to get a class seat. All in service reclasses are handled by your Career Counselor, who has to get the class seat from HRC. I can't begin to tell you how many Senior leaders thought they were doing a Soldier a favor by calling the school house, branch manager, MOS proponent, Instructors, Commandant, etc to try to get a class seat for a Soldier. It just ends up in months of wasted time and a disillusioned Soldier who feels their Senior leaders failed them.

I would advise that you have a very realistic conversation with your Soldier that starts with, "How far along in the interview and hiring process are you?" If they say they're going to start when they get out, we'll welcome to every Retention counseling in every combat arms unit. It might be best to encourage that Soldier to extend long enough to actually have a job waiting when they ETS or to encourage them to reenlist to closer to the location they want to be an LEO in.

Response by MAJ Javier Rivera made Nov 28 at 2020 3:24 PM

2020-11-28T15:24:50-05:00

31K? Good luck! For what I heard, it is one of those MOSs that when a chair is available it goes away immediately!

Response by MAJ Byron Oyler made Nov 28 at 2020 10:52 PM

2020-11-28T22:52:35-05:00

Good of you to ask for your soldier and since they answers seem pretty clear below, is he done with medical? Being a medic more often than not is not what the recruiter sells you and many are disappointed. What is he doing outside of work as most civilian areas have opportunities and to get your state EMT is pretty easy with NREMT. I work part time as a paramedic for AMR. Say he is done, being good at medical depending on what he wants to do in LE can help his path. When I was security forces in the Air Guard, they used my 68W as a medic for them.

Response by SGT Christopher Hayden made Nov 30 at 2020 3:20 PM

2020-11-30T15:20:21-05:00

Since 31K is all but impossible, why not see if they are interested in 31B if they want to stay in?

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 5 at 2020 9:04 AM

2020-12-05T09:04:13-05:00

Coming from a dog handler here I have seen many people reclass into my mos it may be hard and it may take a while but if it is what your soldier wants then your gonna need to go to the kennel at your base and talk to the kennel master he/she will point you in the right direction the soldier should have to do an interview with the km at some point.